How Games Can Change The World | Indie Games | Wizard World St. Louis 2017

The cultural impact of games spreads farther and wider as artists and developers stretch the idea of what a game can be. Join this panel of local game industry professionals as they explore the psychology and social impact of games and play on many professional industries - and facets of culture. Moderated by Carol Mertz, Executive Director of PixelPop Festival.

Carol Mertz - https://twitter.com/carolmertz
Rob Santos - https://twitter.com/RobMSantos
Jen Patton - https://twitter.com/jenrpa/media - http://www.jenrpa.com
The Silver Foxe - https://twitter.com/TheSilverFoxe - twitch.tv/thesilverfoxe
Katherine Brennan

Let's Play - Ori And The Blind Forest

Landon and Barclay play one of the most beautiful games they've ever seen - Ori and the Blind Forest. Let us know what you think of the opening 30 minutes of the game. Does the art style and the way they weave story into the experience intrigue you?

Sexism In Final Fantasy XV

There has been some controversy behind Final Fantasy XV's all male cast and the directors explanation doesn't seem to be sorting it out. Here's our take on the all male cast as well as some conversation about Cidney!

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Let's Play Wizard101 - Nerdygirlnikki

Watch me wizard! -- Watch live at http://www.twitch.tv/nerdygirlnikki

Sponsors! Nerd Block This month's theme is 80s! http://shrsl.com/?~7euj

Crazy Dog Tshirts http://shrsl.com/?~7eum

Follow me! https://twitter.com/nerdygirlnikki https://instagram.com/nerdygirlnikki/ http://nerdygirlnikki.tumblr.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/nerdygirlnikki

Donations are always welcome! http://nerdygirlnikki.blogspot.com/p/donations.html

Five Nights At Freddy's

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Game Loading: Rise of the indies

GameLoading: Rise of the Indies is a feature documentary exploring the world of indie game developers – their craft, their games, their dreams, and how they have forever changed the landscape of games culture.

The film demystifies what goes into making a game and explores where this art form has come from and where it may be going.

Please help us get a screening in St. Louis. We must have enough people registered through Gathr.us by April 3rd to confirm a screening of this film! 

I already got my 2 tickets reserved go here to get your tickets reserved https://gathr.us/screening/11380

SciAnts by Tile Isle

We are super excited about the launch of SciAnts our friend over at Tile Isle have been working hard on this game and its really looking great! The St. Louis indie game community keeps growing and its awesome to see another great game come out of St. Louis.

Survive never-ending waves of superpowered ants in SciAnts, an exciting, fast-paced arcade game for mobile!

You are the sole technician aboard a Zero-G Genetic Engineering Facility. Your job was a relatively simple one: supervise the automated production of SciAnts, a new strain of bio-engineered commercial-grade worker ants.

Unfortunately for you, the SciAnts have escaped into the facility's automatic food dispenser, causing it to malfunction and constantly dispense food. Now the SciAnts are pilfering your limited food supply and bringing it back to their queen. You've got to eat as much food as you can, as fast as you can, before they get away with all your grub!

Download it for free here

Check out Tile Isle on facebook and give them some love.

Star Wars Galactic Defense Review

I am a huge Star Wars fan and I'm always looking for a good mobile Star Wars game. 

 

Positive

- You can choose between the Light or Dark side. I think this is key for a good Star Wars game since it is one of the key things in the universe. (the difference is in what champions you will have access to and then what the enemies and your towers look like.)

- The graphics and design style is really good. I think they fit the Star Wars universe and have a fun playful style.  

- You do not have to pay for anything if you don't want to. But if you want to move through the game quicker and get more champions faster you can buy into the game. 

- I really enjoy controlling the champions and getting to play with Jedi and Sith. They each have different abilities that are each pretty good and different.

 

Negative

- The game is just way to large. You would have to spend a ton of time and money to even get close to finishing it. To put it in perspective on just the first planet (there are 5 planets) you would have to win 60 games to complete that planet fully. That is allot each level has to be completed 5 times to be fully done.

- Your rewards that matter do not come often enough

- You don't ever win a champion. This could be a huge draw to the game like complete hoths final level for the first time and you receive han solo are something. If they implemented this they would make the game much more palatable and fun to play. 

 

Final Thoughts

I had allot of fun playing this game up until i got my 3rd champion and after that i kinda became board with the game. I would download it but don't spend all your time on it. The reward just isn't high enough for the amount of time you have to put in. I would also never spend money on this game because it is just to large your money will not help you complete this game any faster unless you spend a ton of money and i mean a ton. Check out there web site here and download it in the app store here.

Game of the Week: Kings Road (mobile)

Recently I have been looking to add to my mobile gaming repertoire so I was scanning through the iTunes Store looking at the top picks and found Kings Road. I have never been a huge action RPG fan but I am a fan of class selection and character leveling. To my surprise I have thoroughly enjoyed this game at this point.

The story line of the game is similar to a fairy tale. In the absence of the king, a kingdom was captured by some evil enemies. As warrior for the King, players band together and fight enemies in order to free the princess. The game has 3D-style graphics that use Flash Player. -Source: Kings Road wiki

POSITIVE

- Beautiful graphics for both character and mission designs.

- Free to Play: This is a "Freemium" title which means that this game does support in-app purchases. However, from what I have noticed you can get by without making any purchases.

- MMORPG, team up with some of your friends to tackle different quests together.

- In depth character classes.

- Easy to use and understand HUD (heads up display) Screen Layout is easy to jump right into playing.

NEGATIVE

- Freemium: You can play this game without purchasing anything BUT to speed up your leveling process in app purchases is an option.

- No streaming capabilities

- Armor: I know you have to start somewhere but the opening level gear looks terrible especially for my class selection - Wizard.

Overall this game is a lot of fun and definitely worth the download. Grab a few friends to join you and this game from Rumble will be a mainstay on your mobile device. Go check it out, it's playable on your web browser, android and iOS.

Reviewed by: Joe @thee.social.nerd

Vainglory Review

I will be doing mobile game reviews every week now. They will be quick and not super in-depth just enough for you to know if you should spend your time or money on it.

I have been looking for a good MOBA "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" on mobile I have tried a few so far and Vainglory is by far my favorite.

 

Positive

- Your screen view stays stuck on your hero which I like for a mobile device because it is really hard to keep the camera on your hero and be able to move it everywhere.

- The heroes are pretty diverse already and fun to play. 

- The leveling tree is quick and easy to understand.

- You do not have to pay for anything if you don't want to. But if you have a new or fav hero you want to all ways play you can easily drop at max 10$ and pick it up to always play with. 

 

Negative

- The starting map only has one lain and after allot of games can get a little stale

- In the middle of the map there is a kraken that appears half way through the match. If you fight this kraken and win it starts fighting for you and destroying the enemies turrets. Allot of games come down to unleashing the kraken and who ever does this wins. (I have come back several times from games where the kraken was unleashed on my team but it is very difficult.)

- There are not in game streaming capabilities yet.

Over all I really like this game and def think it is worth your time and money if you decide to spend any money on it. Check out there web site vainglorygame.com and download it in the app store here.

Sketching Grand Theft Auto V

Hey gang, Jesse here! Just wanted to share a couple of videos I posted on Instagram that show a little bit of my drawing process. To celebrate the release of GTAV on the new gen consoles I decided to start a sketch of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor but it ended up becoming more than just a sketch hehe. Anyway, check it them and out and please follow me if you have an Instagram account!

Franklin

Michael

Trevor

STL Scatter Jam The Rise of Balthazar

The Rise of Balthazar is finally here! This is the results of our 5 man team at STL Scatter Jam a few weeks ago. Going into this Scatter Jam only 1 of us had created a game before and that was done awhile ago. 

We loved this project and have learned so much. I personally can not wait to make another game and keep building on what we learned.

Checkout the video and let us know what you think in the comments!

Checkout some of the art we created for this project.

Intro title slides

Sprite Sheets

Game pieces

Thanks for everyones hard work on this! 

Ethan Weber, Phil Freeman, Nic Weber, Zach Cavarretta, Ryan Dampf

STL Scatter Jam Part 2

We only have 4 hrs left! Here is a little something to hold you over till we show you the final game this evening!

STL Scatter Jam Part 1

Me and 4 other amazingly talented guys are going to make a game this weekend come watch us on twitch www.twitch.tv/iamryzn and learn what its all about!

Ever wanted to make a video game? HERE'S WHAT YOU DO.

1. Grab a friend. Or several! This is your Crew — the people you'll be making your game with.
2. Invent a name for your Crew and register here
3. Bring your Crew to the opening ceremony, get pumped, and get the theme.
4. SCATTER! You and your Crew go somewhere to work together, and crank out a game over the next 48 hours. 
   Non-WashU participants may not work in WashU facilities during the event, as per policy..
5. Return to the closing ceremony and show it all off to the roar of the crowd, including local developers from Butterscotch Shenanigans, Graphite Lab, Pixel Press, Happy Badger Studio,Riot Games, Simutronics, Upheaval Arts, Speedbump Studios, as well as musical guest Fat Bard, who will be playing live covers of video game tunes.

PixelPop Festival

PixelPop was allot of fun I check out a ton of different game here are 3 of my favorite!

Hive Jump

This game has great art and the action never stops coming at you! I kickstarted this game and can not wait to get my hands on the final version. The only thing I had trouble with is that it was very easy to loose your character on screen and then to also be left behind as your crew moves on. I really enjoyed this game though and can't wait to play the final version.

Pixel Press's Adventure Time Game Wizards

I have always been a huge fan of Adventure Time so when I heard pixel press was making this game I was super excited! After playing a few levels I can not wait to get my hands on the final version of this game! My favorite character was Bimo. In the game is he much smaller then everyone else and there are special areas that only he can get to because of his size. Great game and can't wait to play it more!

Cards and Castles

Cards and Castles was a new game that I discovered at the Festival. It was easy to pick it up and start playing right away it has a chess slash ccg feel. I wish the battle field had better art and would change from level to level. I think this game is interesting and has potential but after playing 10-15 levels I started to realize that the game play and cards are all very similar. It was a good time waister but I wouldn't spend any money on this game. 

Let me know what your favorite game is in the comments below!